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In many African societies homosexuality is still thought to be "un-African", a western import, with laws in place to control it. In this climate of homophobia, I was interested to know what type of LGBT literature is coming out of Africa. I already reviewed The Hairdresser of Harare and The Yacoubian Building, which both have gay characters, but I was curious to know how homosexuality is portrayed in African literature and what else is out there that I should be reading. African LGBT fiction (and non-fiction) seems to be dominated by South African writers but here are some that either explicitly focus on homosexuality or have LGBT characters. 










Shadow Power was the first depiction of a love affair between a white and a black man in South Africa; Love Themes for the Wilderness references a historic art and and queer party, the Locker Room Project; Bitter Fruit has a bisexual woman as a secondary character; Seven Steps to Heaven occasionally shifts into same-sex relationships, such as the relationship between a white and a black man; in Confessions of a Gambler, a Muslim woman with a gambling addiction must come to terms with the fact that her son is gay and dying of AIDs; The World Unseen explores the relationship between a lesbian and a married woman; The Quiet Violence of Dreams looks at a male sex-worker and the gay underworld in Cape Town; The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs explores being gay in a macho society; in Bitter Eden men who identify as heterosexual struggle with issues of masculinity and intimacy; Embrace is the story of a young boy's school life as he falls in love with his best friend and choirmaster; The Hairdresser of Harare is about a young man leading a double life in Harare; Go Tell the Sun has a short story "Sethuya Likes Girls Better", which tells the story of a woman suppressing her sexuality; In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot, Paul and Jane Bowles are a bi-sexual American couple living as expatriates in Tangier involved in same-sex love affairs with Moroccans; Porcupine includes a representation of being black and a lesbian; Open: An Erotic Anthology by South African Women Writers, contains a significant number of stories about being lesbian or bisexual across a range of cultural settings; Black Bull, Ancestors and Me is a memoir of sangoma, a traditional healer and lesbian; The Invisible Ghetto is an anthology of gay and lesbian writers from South Africa; Transgender Life Stories from South Africa features stories about the transgender experience in South Africa.
08:55 3 Comments
What a beautiful book. Probably one of the best books I've read this year and one that I am going to recommend to everyone. As I read it, I kept on thinking my friends coming to Nigeria for the first time, as well as Nigerian friends returning home, definitely need to read this. 

Every Day is for The Thief is an account of a Nigerian returning home after many years in the States. It is part-fiction, part-memoir, and explores the narrators experience of contemporary Lagosian life. Every Day is for The Thief is an accurate description of Lagos. From getting a visa at the New York Consulate (I experience that every time at the Nigerian High Commission in London), to the airport and immigration, to finally being in Lagos and experiencing it flaws and all - the power cuts, the noisy generators, the traffic, the bus conductors, the unloved National Museum (and its depiction of the slave trade and Nigerian military rule), the CMS bookshop with very little to offer, the overt corruption, being threatened by 'area boys', and the low salaries. Through it all the narrator feels like a foreigner and tries to see where he fits in it all. 

He does manage to find glimmers of hope - a lady on the bus reading Michael Ondaatje, the MUSON centre, which in stark contrast to the National Museum is well taken care of, and the Jazzhole selling a broad selection of music and books, including the Michael Ondaatje book he previously saw the woman on the bus reading. Even within these beautiful moments, Nigeria's corruption still persists - a jazz shop sells pirated copies of their expensive CDs and the MUSON centre has a music school where African teachers are paid less than foreign teachers, and where only the privileged can really learn - as you have to have your own piano, violin or cello to be taught. 

This is one of the best books about contemporary Lagos life I have read. There's even a chapter on the slave trade in Nigeria. Even better, I no longer need to explain to my friends what my time in Lagos has been like so far. All I need to do is recommend this book. My only one issue with the book is that it was too short. I wanted more. I didn't want it to end. I know Open City has received rave reviews but this is a tiny gem of a book. 

5 out of 5 stars.
11:16 4 Comments

I've been a fan of this literary magazine for a while now. StoryTime is a weekly online literary magazine, which publishes new fiction and book excerpts by African writers. Their first issue published in 2007 had a short story Earth Rise by Ivor Hartmann and they are currently on issue 166 with a story Longing by Tabitha Mwangi. I absolutely love this website because I'm able to read new African fiction once a week (and it's free). Once a year it also publishes a short story anthology called African Roar, edited by Emmanuel Siguake and Ivor Hartmann. Below are some of the stories that you can find on their website. For all their stories check here.


16:11 No Comments
I've recently become more interested than usual in African Literary Awards so apologies if posts to come all share the same theme of literary awards. I've got the 2010 and 2011 Caine Prize for African Fiction Anthologies on my bookshelf and I've been trying to decide which one to read first. Until I decide which one to go for, here's a look at the past anthologies. The Caine Prize is awarded annually to a short story published in English by an African writer and each year the winning story and shortlisted works are published.

 
 
 
15:54 5 Comments
Prior to 2012, the Commonwealth Writers Prize included the Best Book and Best First Book in four regions. With the rebranding of the prize I was curious about the past winners for the African region, and here they are (well the best books). In my search I also found this - ComWin Project-Africa. It's a pretty cool challenge to read all the past Commonwealth Best Book and Best First Book winners for the African region. I've promised myself not to get into any more challenges this year, but this is something I'd like to do over a longer period because I've read, and heard of, some but not all of these books.


Best Book (1987-2011)
11:04 3 Comments
Here's the Best First Book (1989-2011) Prize. I've done a bit better in this category but I still would like to read most, if not all of them, in the near future. 
11:04 2 Comments
The Gambia is one of those African countries that probably doesn't feature prominently when talking about African literature so I just wanted to showcase some of the literature from there. 

Shortlisted for the CommonWealth Writer's Prize 2008: Best First Book, Africa Region Reading the Ceiling is Dayo Forster's first novel. Ayodele’s life will tread a different path depending on a decision she makes on her eighteenth birthday, on the cusp of womanhood; but how will she choose? One path will send Ayodele to Europe, to university – and to the pain of first love. Another will have her travel the globe after suffering immeasurable loss. Still another will keep her in Africa, a mother and wife in a polygamous marriage. And in each of Ayodele’s possible lives we see how the interplay of choice and fate determines the shape of our lives. What part of us would be different if we had made different decisions? And what part of us would stay the same?
Christie's Crisis is Sally Sadie Singhateh's first novel. The story is a mystery, an adventure in which Christie and her friends try to solve various riddles involving drug trafficking, her strange grandmother, her dead father and an adopted child.


The Sun Will Soon Shine is Sally Sadie Singhateh's second novel. For an intelligent, ambitious girl growing up in a Gambian village, life holds few tempting prospects. Marriage and motherhood, often forced, are the paths assigned to most. Nyima, too, is subject to this fate, as well as having to endure the ongoing practice of genital mutilation. But ours is a heroine of immense courage, able to see beyond her situation, despite the bleakness of life. She makes it through her darkest hours, and emerges stronger on the other side, though permanently scarred by her ordeals. It is in education and work that Nyima finds her salvation, and begins to rebuild her life, and indeed be reborn. The question is, though, can she ever truly love or trust again? This is a moving and emphatic tale of a young woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and culture, and above all, the possibility of having a future to look forward to, no matter what the odds.

In Fake Love by Ebou Gaye, Ya Rose, quits her job in her native country and travels to the United Kingdom to seek greener pastures. There, she finds life extremely hard, contrary to her expectations. Consequently, she resorts to luring men into relationships with the aim of manoeuvring her way out of the awkward situation in which she finds herself.

In Costly Prices by Ramatoulie Othman, three Gambian men, Musa, Kadri and Lamin, befriend and have sex with European tourists in the hope of getting money or visas. It also focuses on the plight of the women left behind by these men and expected to wait for them while they are married to other European women. 
23:21 1 Comments
This was actually inspired by some of the comments I got when I first admitted that I judge books by their covers. So I thought I would showcase some original Heinemann African Writers Series cover designs.


1960s

 1970s
1980s
1990s - 2000s
*Source: Images sourced from here.


I was also quite interested in the inspiration behind the original AWS covers. In the 1960s and 70s, the design included colour-coding of the covers – fiction (orange - obviously taking inspiration from Penguin Books), non-fiction (blue) and poetry and plays (green). The AWS book-cover designs also often incorporated elements of traditional African art, to illustrate the main topic or theme of the novel, and had photographs (taken by George Hallet) of the authors on the back. The AWS covers always reminded me of literature texts for schools and it turns out the original intended audience were schools and universities. 


The change in design of the covers from the distinctive orange of the fiction titles to the newer covers, especially in the 90s, had to do with a shift in focus from education in a primary African market towards the US universities and UK general trade market. The aim was to add more colours, make it look more mainstream and more attractive for the UK/US markets.
15:56 2 Comments
I used to be the biggest fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, but in the last couple of years I haven't read as much as I would like. I would really love to get back into it again. So while looking for some Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels to read I stumbled on this - the AfroSF Anthology edited by Ivor Hartmann - this will be the fist anthology of science fiction by African writers. I knew of Nnedi Okorafor and Lauren Beukes (although I haven't yet read their novels) but I hadn't realised there's been a rise in African Science Fiction (where have I been?). There's not that much (it's still growing) but I still think it's pretty cool. As always my long list of books to read just keeps on getting longer. A book lover's job is never done :). 


For more on African Science Fiction: SF in South Africa, AfroCyberPunk, Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction?, Chimurenga 12/13.




 
08:24 2 Comments
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About me

Founded in 2011, bookshy represents two things: the young me who was so shy I escaped through books, and the older me whose shelf is always one book shy of being full.

bookshy is a space where I celebrate, promote and recognise contemporary African literature - although sometimes I go back in time to commemorate the greats. It is about the books I love, the books I have read and the books that I am dying to read.

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      • LGBT Literature in Africa
      • Book Review: Teju Cole's 'Every Day is for The Thief'
      • The State of African Publishing: StoryTime - Weekl...
      • Caine Prize Anthologies
      • Commonwealth Writers Prize - Best Book (1987-2011)...
      • Commonwealth Writers Prize: Best First Book (1989-...
      • Gambian Literature
      • Judging a Book by its Cover: African Writers Series
      • African Science Fiction
      • My Thoughts: Buchi Emecheta's 'The Joys of Motherh...
      • African Crime Fiction
      • The State of African Publishing: Storymoja
      • Confessions of a Bookaholic
      • Book Review: Hisham Matar's 'Anatomy of a Disappea...
      • Book Review: Bobo Omotayo's 'London Life, Lagos Li...
      • Book Review: Chimeka Garricks 'Tomorrow Died Yeste...
      • Book Review: Tsitsi Dangarembga's 'Nervous Conditi...
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